As a photographer creativity is very important to my business, as without this I will never reach the next level, it is a time to play and try out new techniques without the pressure of having to deliver for the client.

Recently I booked an alternative fashion model for a location shoot in one of my favourite places, the South Bank in London. As I intended to travel lightly I packed the minimum of equipment into a small rucksack and headed off. My aim was to use natural light for the shoot, however I did pack my speedlight, just in case. This proved to be fortuitous as I used it on camera for the majority of the shots as the weather was rather dull. Now any professional will tell you that the worst place to have your speedlight is on camera, however on this occasion I will beg to differ as I used it entirely in bounce mode with an attached diffuser.

This provided a more natural look to the images without all of the problems that you get with direct flash such as hotspots and the dreaded red-eye. Following post production I would challenge anyone to spot the difference to using natural light. It is certainly a technique to try out and perfect as the extra sparkle provided by the unit will lift what could turn out to be avery dull image. The technique itself is fairly simple as there is usually a suitable surface to bounce the flash from, you just need to play and use flash compensation to find the most suitable exposure, checking the histogram to ensure no burn out, other than that trial and error will teach you a lot about this technique.

So after meeting the model at Waterloo we walked down to the graffiti tunnel under Waterloo station, a location that I have used in the past. This provided a suitable back drop for the look that I wanted and suits my vibrant style. Following this a couple of successful images were created outside a rather seedy looking entrance to the back area of the underground station. Later we went down to the South Bank close to the Festival Hall and National Theatre to create some more images and of course used the underground skate park recently saved from closure underneath the National Theatre.

This proved to be a great exercise in creative photography and a very entertaining couple of hours.

So there we are, just go out and play occasionally, it will do your photography a power of good.